Edge of Oblivion
by Monica Bovee
Summary: The Doctor allows Alison to be tested.
1. Default Chapter

"An alternate timeline?" asked Alison.

"No, no, no! The Doctor nearly shouted with glee. "A redundant time line, a sort of temporal eddy, or bubble of unreality if you will."

"And we're in it?"

"We are it!" He grinned broadly and stretched his arms out indicating the entire console room and it's three occupants.

The Doctor's unusual exuberance made Alison nervous. "How can you be certain?" She gazed at the boiling red depression that hung placidly in the center of the Tardis view screen.

"My dear girl," the Master interrupted "he can be certain because he has eyes."

"Oh well that explains everything" Alison said blandly.

The Doctor smiled and indicated the scarlet monstrosity shifting silently in it's background of twinkling stars. "It's a time well," he explained "and it exists in an actual physical location, just as you see it now..."

"Yes..." Alison eyed the screen suspiciously.

"but it's also a temporal construct, a theoretical..."

"This really isn't helping" said Alison.

The Doctor leapt toward the console. He pressed a button and the view screen was filled with the red glow. "In normal space-time the effect wouldn't be visible. It could only be located mathematically, and only then by an extremely advanced computer or by a being with exceptional intelligence."

"Which is why he believed only he could locate it" said the Master.

"Well I have haven't I?"

"Only by shear accident."

"Wait... wait..." Alison sighed "before you two start arguing again, let me get this strait. In normal reality I wouldn't be able to see it?"

"Exactly" The Doctor and Master answered in unison.

"Because it doesn't exist."

"Correct."

"And yet it does."

"To some extent yes." The Doctor answered "Think of it as the hub of a wheel, a universal focal point that extents into every conceivable reality. Parts of it do exist in your dimension but it's beyond your ability to sense it.

"And its shrinking" said Alison as she pointed to the view screen. The outer edge of the thing was slowly fading to black, the redness slowly pouring in on itself like shifting sand.

"Of course" the Doctor whispered.

Alison squinted at the screen "What does it mean?"

The Master stepped forward. "It means, that unless we do something the well will close, and this temporal anomaly that we happen to be so intricate a part of will cease to exist."

Alison looked to the Doctor "What can we do about it?"

"Do? We're not going to do anything." Her eyes widened, and he smiled in response. "Alison you don't seem to understand, there is no real risk. We'll all still continue to exist, you back on earth and myself, well... I'll still be around, just not as the man I am now."

"Simple as that?" her brows raised.

"These things occur naturally..." he explained patiently "picture a stone being dropped in a pond. Ripples move outward from the point of impact and then return to the source." He turned to look at the screen once more and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Hmmmm... perhaps it is no mistake that we located it."

"And these "ripples" move both into the past and the future?" she asked.

"Indeed" the Master replied "causing relatively mild time discrepancies that eventually merge with the normal time line."

"I see" she said softly.

"So now, we sit back and watch" the Doctor said. "Just think Alison, you'll be the only human in existence to have witnessed a spectacle like this."

"Though you'll have no memory of it of course" the Master added helpfully.

"So we just watch it close."

The Doctor nodded "There's nothing we could do to stop it anyway."

"That is not entirely correct" said the Master. The Doctor turned to face him. "I have my own theory on the matter."

"Which is?" the Doctor asked with interest.

"That if one could survive in the center of the well, one could conceivably exert some mental control over its activity, and as it is linked to all reality... all time..."

"One could rationalize the anomaly, create a new, stable timeline." The Doctor considered it for a moment and shook his head "No living body could survive..." he stopped and stared at the Master who's face was locked in a tight smile.

"Well..." he said slowly "well... you have a point, but I could never allow you to do that."

"Why not" asked Alison.

"Because in this particular instance he wouldn't be creating an alternate thread, he'd be obliterating the original."

"... to no great loss." the Master added.

The Doctor glanced from the Master to Alison in turns. Finally his eyes rested on the Master. "It's not going to happen."

The Master's eyes moved downward though the smile never left his face. "I thought not."

A silence fell over the console room.

"Well, now that that's settled" said the Doctor quietly "I think I'll bring up some extra chairs, the view should be spectacular." He took one last look at the both of them and then turned and left the room.


	2. Chapter 2

"I noticed you didn't put up much of a fight." Alison glanced at the Master furtively. He still stared fixedly at the view screen.

"His mind is set, and in such cases there's very little I can do to change it."

Alison stared at the console room floor. "It's like death isn't it?"

The Master looked sidelong at her. "No," he said a little too quickly, then "perhaps... perhaps for a being of your limited perspective."

"Oh thanks." she said, then she too gazed at the screen. "He didn't seem too concerned..."

"No," the Master pondered this "I'm sure he finds the experience quite liberating, the events he's experienced in his current incarnation have been somewhat... traumatic."

Alison found herself staring at her hands. "But we'll continue to exist?"

"You can be certain of that, though personally I would prefer that my existence remains as it is, despite it's current limitations," he looked to the place the Doctor had exited, then to her "and I believe you feel the same way."

The air hung heavily in the room.

"I make you an offer"

"No thanks"

"You haven't even heard my proposal."

"I don't need to, You want to move the Tardis into that thing and you want me to shove you out..."

"Well I can hardly exit of my own volition can I?"

Alison smirked. "As much as I'd sometimes like to shove you out of the Tardis I think I'll give it a miss."

He stepped closer to her "Are you certain?" he said, his eyes locked on hers.

She turned away from him and faced the console. "That's not going to work either."

He chuckled lightly and clasped his hands behind his back "You know me so well, but consider this... are you truly ready to face your own oblivion?"

She paused a moment. "I'll manage" she finally said, tipping her head to the side and rolling one shoulder back as if attempting to shrug him off.

"And with your memories gone... you go back to your mundane place on earth, your life as it was before."

"The Doctor..." she began "he said it would be wrong to..."

"The Doctor" he interrupted "would never willingly extend his life beyond its natural limits".

"But you would" she said.

"Of course" he said "you already know this."

Alison turned to face him. Beyond him the view screen showed a fountain of light flowing fiercely upward from the center of the red mass. She studied it quietly.

"Well then, there's only one thing left to do." she said calmly.

"The master's eyebrows raised in mild expectation. "And that is?"

Alison shifted her hand behind her back and flicked the deactivation switch on the console. The Master's eyes glowed red briefly, then glazed over. He stood rigidly still.

"I never could take the easy way out" she let her arms fall to her sides.

"Well done Alison."

She turned to find the Doctor watching her from the far end of the control room. She glanced down briefly, then back up at him. She smiled. "I notice you didn't bring any chairs."


	3. Chapter 3

The center of the well exploded outward in a white flash. Secondary explosions lit its circumference. Finally the redness boiled inward and shrank to a cooling ember in the night sky.

The Doctor pressed the console panel and the view screen shifted to a stony gray "It's done."

They stood side by side near the console. Seconds ticked by. Then, almost imperceptibly at first, the control room walls began to blur.

Alison clasped the Doctor's hand in hers and gripped it tightly.

"It's going to be all right," he whispered "I'm here."

The colours of the room shifted and spiraled in on themselves, billowing forward like an angry storm cloud. Alison turned and clung to the Doctor, burying her face in the material of his coat. He reached his arms around her and held her close.

"Do you trust me Alison?"

"Yes..." her muffled voice answered "yes I trust you."

He lifted his hand and watched as it slowly began to blend with the turbulent surroundings. Ignoring it, he stared fixedly at what was left of the brown leather armchair sitting at the other end of the console.

"Time for a change"


	4. Chapter 4

The Doctor startled from his nap. In the corner of his eye, just for an instant, it seemed there was someone there. He gripped the armchair tightly and turned to the Tardis console. Nothing.

He'd been dreaming, or at least he thought he had. Whatever the dream was it was fading now. Still an eerie feeling ran through him. Something he'd forgotten? Probably something important. He stood quickly and walked to the console. He stretched his arm out experimentally and ran it from side to side in the open air, then he let it drop to his side. Regeneration could be baffling at times, and visual delusions were not uncommon.

He shook his head.

Looking across the console he spied himself in a full length mirror on the other side of the room. He walked slowly around the console and approached the mirror with interest. It was still so much to get used to. He leaned in toward his reflection.

Short hair... very short. And the ears. He pressed them against his head with his fingertips. He smiled, then removed his hands, they popped defiantly outward once more. The smile slid from his face and his brow furrowed.

"Not exactly what I was expecting. Still..."

He quickly took off his velvet frock coat and strode to the coat rack. He gazed at the garment as he hung it. It was still in excellent repair but there was something... a sort of threadbare weariness about it that he couldn't quite place. He pondered it for a moment, then noticed a black leather coat hanging on an adjoining hook.

He plucked it from the coat rack and examined it thoughtfully. He smiled.

"Yes," he said softly "time for a change."


End file.
